FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Term 3 - Week 7

This week's 'Principals address' will be primarily devoted to a thorough analysis of our Year 3 Reading results from this years NAPLAN.

Situational Analysis

In March, St Nicholas School had 82 Year 3 students sit the Year 3 Reading NAPLAN Assessment, 42 were male and 40 were female.  

Six (6) students identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. 17 students are on a Personal Plan. 71 of our Year 3 students were enrolled in Kindergarten (2020) and 11 students have enrolled at St Nicholas School since the beginning of Year 1. 

NAPLAN READING ANALYSIS 2023

In 2023 NAPLAN reporting moved away from ‘Bands’ to four new ‘Proficiency Standards’. Students are categorised into a standard of:

• Needs Additional Support: National distribution is 10% of students
• Developing: National distribution is 20% of students
• Strong: National distribution is 55% of students
• Exceeding: National distribution is 15% of students

Table 1A illustrates the percentage of St Nicholas School students in each standard. This data measures exceptionally against the Nation. Pleasingly we are higher in the top two standards and lower in the bottom two standards.

Table 1B presents St Nicholas Schools Year 3 Reading average alongside the Diocese, State, Nation and Statistically Similar Schools averages. Against each of the four cohorts, St Nicholas is significantly higher. Also significant is that the Diocesan average is higher than the State average. A remarkable achievement for a rural and remote diocese.

While it is pleasing to see our Year 3 Reading average so high, it is just as important to break open our cohort and see the number of students who are achieving marks above the Diocese, State, Nation and Statistically Similar Schools. 60% of our students are above every average, and 66% are performing higher than the National average. These percentages highlight our learning and teaching is supporting all students and our averages are not reliant on high achievers.

Time of enrolment at St Nicholas

Table 1D displays both cohorts (before and after Kindergarten 2020 enrolment) achieving above the Diocesan, State, National and Statistically Similar School averages. It also highlights the consistency of learning and teaching our students are receiving from day 1 Kindergarten.

Attendance

“Regular attendance at school is essential if students are to maximise their potential” (CSO Policy & Procedures for Student Attendance, paragraph 1.1). This statement gains extra weight when viewing Table 1E. 

Our Year 3 students whose attendance rate was above 90% in 2022, on average, scored an additional 15.05 marks than their peers whose attendance rate was below 90%. Our school's rigor and sophistication in the learning and teaching of reading sets our children with consistently high attendance up for success!

Conclusion

The deep analysis of our Year 3 NAPLAN reading data paints a very strong picture of the learning and teaching of reading at St Nicholas. 

At St Nicholas we should be proud of our reading culture setting our children up for a successful future.

In next week's newsletter I look forward to sharing with you a similarly positive analysis of our Year 5 Reading NAPLAN results

Education Assistant Appreciation Week

This week St Nicholas joined the Nation in recognising and thanking our wonderful Education Assistants. 

At St Nicholas School we are so very fortunate with the exceptional quality of Education Assistants supporting the faith, learning and wellbeing outcomes of our students. On behalf of our entire school community - thank you!

Fathers Day

Tomorrow morning we welcome our school community to join us in thanking our fathers for the role they play in the lives of our students. The festivities will start at 7.30am with breakfast before a liturgy at 9.00am.

Thank you to Southwell Property (Georgia Year 2 and Jacqueline Kindergarten) for supplying all our fathers with a bacon and egg roll. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Have a great week

John Clery

Principal